Iranian Journal of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Volume:9 Issue: 3, Sep 2015

Context: The aim of this study was to determine the experimental evidence of treatment/intervention programs for deficits in social skills, attention, and behavioral disorder in children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Evidence Acquisition: Meta-analysis procedures were employed to investigate whether children and adolescents with ADHD exhibit deficits in attention and social skills. A total of 17 empirical research studies published between 2000 and 2013 met our inclusion criteria. Attention and social skills measures were categorized according to both modality and type of processing required. Children with ADHD exhibited deficits in multiple components of attention and social skills that were not related to language-learning disorders and weaknesses in general intellectual abilities. The overall percentage effect for attention and social skills in students with ADHD was calculated (effect size = 0. 79, confidence interval = 0.57 - 1.08). This meta-analysis study showed that treatment programs reduced attention deficit and social skills in ADHD children and adolescents. The evidence of attention and social skills deficits in children with ADHD supports recent studies in ADHD deficits. Further research is required to explain in detail the nature, severity, and specificity of the deficits in individuals with ADHD.

Zinc can modulate fast-excitatory transmission, facilitate the release of amino butyric acid and potentiate nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. There are also emerging evidences discussing the implication of these neurotransmitters in pathophysiology of schizophrenia. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of Zn sulfate as an add-on therapy in the treatment of schizophrenia in a 6-week, double-blind and placebo-controlled trial. Patients and Eligible participants were 30 inpatients with schizophrenia according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision criteria. Patients were randomly allocated into two equal groups; one group of patients received risperidone 6 mg/day plus capsules of Zn sulfate (each containing 50 mg elemental Zn) three times a day and another group received risperidone 6 mg/day plus placebo. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was applied to assess the psychotic symptoms and aggression risk at baseline, week 2, 4, and 6 of the study. The results of this study showed that both protocols significantly decreased the scores on all subscales of the PANSS and supplemental aggression risk subscale as well as PANSS total score over the study. However, this improvement was significantly higher in Zn sulfate receiving group compared to the placebo group. No major clinical side-effects were detected. It may be concluded that Zn is an effective adjuvant agent in the management of patients with schizophrenia.

Various studies have shown a seasonal pattern in suicide in the developed societies; however, this pattern is not taken into consideration in most countries including Iran. The current paper studied the seasonal pattern of committing suicide in Northern Iran. The present study was a longitudinal study with time series features. Subject included suicide attempts recorded by emergency wards of all hospitals in Mazandaran province, Iran. The variable time, in this study, was defined as each month of study years (2005 - 2011), which included 84 monthly time points. To analyze data, the Student’s independent t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) test were used. Of the 14,437 suicide attempts reported during the seven-year period, 5359 (37.1%) were related to males. Suicide attempts reached a peak in June (1418 cases) and November (1352 cases), but were at their lowest level in March (991 cases) (P = 0.877). The suicide seasonality range is broad in this part of Iran. Moreover, there were two noticeable suicide peaks in June and November.

One of the shortcomings of the available treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD) is the time delay between starting the treatment and achieving an antidepressant response. We aimed to determine the effect of Ketamine as a synergistic antidepressant and anesthetic agent on MDD in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Patients and Twenty-two patients with MDD received Ketamine and Propofol as anesthetic agents compared with 20 patients as the control group who received Propofol in a double-blind randomized clinical trial. The Hamilton rating scale for depression was used to determine the changes in symptoms severity during ECT and a 2-week follow-up. Both groups showed a reduction in depression severity, but there was no significant difference between the groups in the recovery process (P = 0.92). However, the cognitive performance recovery time in the Ketamine group was lower than that in the control group (P = 0.042). This study could not show the effect of Ketamine on depression recovery in a 2-week follow-up period. Nevertheless, Ketamine may provide a better cognitive performance in patients under ECT.

Family caregiving for patients with chronic mental illness is influenced by various factors such as political, socioeconomic, and cultural contexts as well as related policies and health services. The purpose of this study was to explore the challenges with which the family caregivers of patients with chronic mental illness have to contend. The research design was qualitative with a phenomenological approach. The research population consisted of 16 long-term carers expressing interest in participating in the project. The carers were the family members of mentally ill relatives who collected their monthly medications at Farshchian Psychiatry Hospital in Hamadan in 2012. Purposive sampling was used to draw the sample. Data were collected by individual in-depth semi-structured interviews, which were tape-recorded and analyzed via Colaizzi’s phenomenological method. Rigor was assessed regarding credibility, dependability, conformability, and transferability. Our findings highlighted 4 main themes, namely stress and emotional distress, need for education and information, socioeconomic effects and support, and physical strain. Families experience frustrations when providing support and care to their mentally ill relatives. They, therefore, need appropriate support and intervention by mental health services.

The somatosensory amplification scale (SSAS) is a 10-item self-report instrument designed to assess a tendency to experience normal somatic and visceral sensations as intense, noxious, and disturbing. The present study investigated the reliability and validity of the SSAS, developed by Barsky et al. (1988), in the Iranian population. The study was carried out on 240 patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders and 30 healthy persons selected by convenience sampling from 2013 to 2014. The patients completed the SSAS, the somatization subscale of the symptom checklist-90-revised (SCL-90-R som), and the modified somatic perception questionnaire (MSPQ), whereas the healthy persons completed just the SSAS. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that the one-factor solution, accounting for 29.42% of the variance, explained that the SSAS items were represented by one global dimension. The SSAS had acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.78) and good test-retest reliability (r = 0.80). The item-to-scale correlations varied from 0.17 to 0.55. Item 2 had the lowest item-total score correlation (r = 0.17), and the α coefficient for the SSAS exceeded when this item was deleted. The convergent validity of the SSAS with somatization was shown with a significant correlation between the SSAS, SCL-90-R som (r = 0.36), and MSPQ scores (r = 0.52). Discriminant validity analysis showed no significant difference in the SSAS between the patient and control groups (P > 0.05) and non-specificity of the SSAS for patients. In sum, the SSAS has acceptable reliability and validity for the Iranian population and the scale measures the same the original scale, namely somatosensory amplification.

Psychopathological perfectionism is often correlated with obsessive compulsive eating disorders. The purpose of this study was to investigate perfectionism in people with high traits of obsessive compulsive and eating disorder characteristics. This study was an expo fact research. The statistical population of the research comprised of male and female undergraduate students at Tabriz and Sarab branches of Payam- e- Noor University, Tabriz Islamic University and Azarbaijan Shahid Madani university in the academic year 2012 - 2013. A group of 640 university students, using the stratified random sampling method were screened by the obsessive compulsive inventory and the eating attitude test, then a group of 143 participants with high obsessive compulsive traits with another 137 participants with high eating disorder characteristics were selected and assessed with the Perfectionism Inventory. Data were analyzed using one way analysis of variance. The results showed that perfectionism and related negative dimension are more commonly found in people with high obsessive-compulsive traits than eating disorder characteristics (P < 0.02). The results showed the highest contribution of maladaptive perfectionism in predicting obsessive-compulsive features and pathological eating attitude. Also, no difference was found between the two groups in terms of negative perfectionism. The greater association of perfectionism with symptoms of obsessive-compulsive is consistent with its phenomenological feature. Fear of failure may motivate the behavioral components of perfectionism that aim to focus on careful checking, reassurance seeking and excessive consideration before making a decision.

Particularly, this concept has used for examination of its empact on health of various people groups. Given the importance of students'' health, this study investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence and general health. The concept of emotional intelligence has attracted growing interest from researchers working in various fields. This study investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence and general health. In this cross-sectional study, 136 students were selected from the University of Guilan, north of Iran, using simple random sampling. The subjects completed the Schutte self-report emotional intelligence test and general health questionnaire. The results showed a significant correlation between emotional intelligence and general health. Also, results indicated that emotional perception and emotional utilization are predictors of general health. The findings reflect that emotional intelligence can play an important role in general health.

While the role of some personality traits has been comprehensively explored, scientific study of others, such as patience has been neglected. Psychologists have paid scant attention to patience as a personality trait, character strength or virtue. The current study examined the relationship between patience and life satisfaction, mental health, and personality. A sample of 252 Iranian college students (129 females and 123 males) completed the 3-factor patience scale, satisfaction with life scale, general health questionnaire, anxiety and depression scales and mini international personality item pool-big five. The three types of patience (interpersonal, life hardship, and daily hassles) were associated with higher levels of life satisfaction and lower levels of depression, anxiety and psychological dysfunction. Patience also showed moderate relationship with the Big-Five factors of personality. After controlling the personality factors, patience managed to explain additional unique variance in life satisfaction and mental health indicators. Patience is a unique predictor of mental well-being. It is suggested that long-term patience is more important for depression and general health, whereas short-term patience is more beneficial for hedonic well-being.

The tendency and motivation to progress and achieve the ideal position have always encouraged people towards acquiring the required education. The present research aimed to investigate the association of mental-social climate and social anxiety with self-efficiency and also predict the academic self-efficiency of first grade high school students based on social anxiety and the mental-social climate of the classroom. A total of 350 subjects (172 girls and 178 boys) have been chosen by a random clustering sampling form the first grade high school students of Qaemshahr, Iran. The academic self-efficiency questionnaire, the social anxiety scale for teenagers and the classroom mental climate scale were used to collect the required data. For data analysis, the statistical method of correlation analysis, independent t test, and multivariate regression have been used. The research findings showed that there was a significant negative relationship between mental-social climate of the classroom and students’ self-efficiency. In addition, social anxiety has been a significant negative relationship with self-efficiency. Furthermore, a significant positive relationship exists between mental-social climate and social anxiety. In order to develop students’ self-efficacy, there should be appropriate psychosocial climate. Therefore, teachers and administrators of education must provide all necessary arrangements to improve psychosocial climate classes.

In Iran, inpatient group psychotherapy has been limited to transient practices for research purposes or fulfilling personal interest of therapists. The goal of this paper is to share and explain the experience of developing an inpatient group psychotherapy program in Roozbeh Psychiatric Hospital, Tehran, Iran. After theoretical delineation and preparation of a draft of the program guideline, two pilot sessions were held. Based on this initial experience a final treatment guideline was prepared. Afterwards, the program was continued for more than 1 year in a female ward at Roozbeh Psychiatric Hospital. The output of this exercise was a guideline that covers important topics in development of inpatient group psychotherapy. It is concluded that inpatient group psychotherapy has its unique challenges. Of the most important challenges that can be mentioned in this regard are the participation of patients with significant differences in levels of psychopathology and psychiatric signs and symptoms, and high comorbidity with specific personality traits or disorders. Other challenges relevant to the structure of the group include items such as very limited time for working through and inevitable out-of-group contacts.

Internet addiction is a global phenomenon that causes serious problems in mental health and social communication. Students form a vulnerable group, since they have free, easy, and daily access to the internet. The current study aimed to investigate perceived social support, self-esteem, and internet addiction among Al-Zahra University students. In the current descriptive research, the statistical sample consisted of 101 female students residing at AL-Zahra University dormitory, Tehran, Iran. Participants were randomly selected and their identities were classified. Then, they completed the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, Rosenberg’s Self-esteem Scale, and Yang Internet Addiction Test. After completion of the questionnaires, the data were analyzed using the correlation test and stepwise regression. The Pearson correlation coefficient indicated significant relationships between self-esteem and internet addiction (P < 0.05, r = -0.345), perceived social support (r = 0.224, P < 0.05), and the subscale of family (r = 0.311, P < 0.05). The findings also demonstrated a significant relationship between internet addiction and perceived social support (r = -0.332, P < 0.05), the subscale of family (P < 0.05, r = -0.402), and the other subscales (P < 0.05, r = -0.287). Results of the stepwise regression showed that the scale of internet addiction and the family subscale were predicative variables for self-esteem (r = 0.137, P < 0.01, F2, 96 = 77.7). Findings of the current study showed that persons with low self-esteem were more vulnerable to internet addiction.

Due to the various problems of children with autism, their families and especially their mothers become exposed to stress. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of cognitive behavior group therapy on parenting stress of mothers of children with autism. The sample of this research consisted of sixteen mothers of children with autism. The measurement tools were the Abidin Parenting Stress questionnaire and a demographic questionnaire. The samples participated in seven sessions of cognitive behavior group therapy. The data were analyzed using the repeated measures test. The findings indicated significant differences between scores of pretest and posttest considering parenting stress (P = 0.03) and subscales of parenting distress (P = 0.01), yet there weren’t significant differences in the other subscales (P > 0.05). Cognitive behavior group therapy could be an important part of interventions used to decrease parenting stress of mothers of children with autism.

Self-amputation, the extreme form of self-mutilation, is uncommon. The vast majority of cases are associated with psychosis, with a small number being assigned the controversial diagnosis of body identity integrity disorder. In this article, we report two cases of non-psychotic self-amputation and their similarities with a view to highlighting the risk factors and formulating an appropriate management plan.